I’m a comic book writer and artist — amongst other things.
I was a dominant force in the 80s ‘British Invasion’ for that decade, but decided to move on from comics and expand my creative horizons into pop videos, animation and Hollywood feature films. I like working in lots of different media, as it stops me getting too bored… I came back to comics when DC invited me to do the final episode of their acclaimed SOLO series.
Recently, a movie I co-wrote and designed, Mad Max Fury Road, stormed its way to a whole bunch of Oscars and ‘Best of the Year’ awards. That was very gratifying, as it took us nearly 20 years to get the darned thing made!

2) What got you into comics in the first place?

Comics are my first love and I always saw the creative possibilities of the art form, back when comics were a ‘cultural ghetto’ and very much disrespected and looked down on by the clueless.

3) Who are your biggest influences in the industry?

When I was a kid, I grew up reading the 60s classics by Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Infantino, Steranko…the titans of that era. Robert Crumb was a huge influence, in that he would put on paper whatever craziness came into his mind. I loved that freedom. The European artists who became mainstream in the 80s were great too: Moebius, Pratt, Toppi and Liberatore were the creative giants of their age. I have a soft spot for Tony Millionaire’s Sock Monkey. I can always look at Mike Mignola’s art without hurting my eyes. Frank Quitely is still a modern master. There are lots of great new people coming up all the time, especially in the indy scene, from publishers like NoBrow.

4) Your style is very psychedelic, where does that influence come from?

Well, Yellow Submarine would have to be the single biggest influence on my style these days. I still watch that amazing movie and am stunned at its endless creativity. Pop videos, like David Bowie’s ‘Ashes to Ashes’, can still be exciting. They are cut to music and operate on a different plane of storytelling. They’re jerky and jump around a lot — I like to put that energy into my comics.

5) What sparked the idea for Dream Gang?

I’ve had the idea in my head for about 30 years! I did originally pitch it to Vertigo back in the early 90s. We were going to do it, but couldn’t settle on a deal which satisfied me. It was called ‘Z-MEN’ back then. When the movie Inception came out, I was floored, as so many similar ideas were being explored and I was forced to rethink everything… I changed the storyline, the characters and the title! I was pushed into a massive rethink, which I now prefer to my original concept. It became less ‘filmic’ and more ‘comic strip’…

6) For those who may be unfamiliar with the series, what is Dream Gang about exactly?

Dream Gang is a new concept. It was first serialised in the monthly anthology series Dark Horse Presents, and pretty much came out under the radar. I did a substantial rewrite and revamped the art for this new version, which is definitive.
Dream gang is about a group of people who project themselves into dreams at night, who assume dream personas — adopting new guises as ‘dream avatars’ if you like — and wandering about in the collective unconscious. They uncover a dark conspiracy to implant a ‘Dream Bomb’ into a young man’s memory, and set off a viral meme that will stupefy the world’s sleeping population and create a nightmare planet.
The story explores the shifting world of memories and dreams — the deep-buried thoughts that can keep us trapped in the prisons of the mind.

7) Can we expect to see more of Dream Gang in the future?

I feel there are an infinite amount of stories to be told in Dream Gang. But I always look for that ‘special’ story that hits a nerve with me. After all, writing and drawing a graphic novel is a big thing to take on, and so I need to feel that the story is worth the telling and by characters worth spending my time with.

8) Anything else you’re working on?

I’m currently drawing a one-off DR FATE story for DC Comics. That’s a character that I’ve always liked, but he’s never really connected with audiences, has he? The writer, Paul Levitz, has tailored the story to my psychedelic sensibilities. Maybe it’ll lead onto something new with Dr Fate. I have had a lot of good ideas for a new ‘take’ on the character. After all, ‘Fate’ is a very interesting theme…
I’m hankering to do a new team-up comic: Judge Dredd and My Little Pony. I think the possibilities are enormous in putting those two worlds together! Reality may not survive such a radical merging of dissonant universes.
The next creator-owned story I’ll do may well be the next Dream Gang — it depends on how the graphic novel sells, ultimately. So if you want to see another Dream Gang story, rush out and tell your friends all about this singular and psychedelic comic book.

]]>http://comicplug.com/dream-gang-interview-with-brendan-mccarthy/feed/04058The Trial of the Flash of Two Worldshttp://comicplug.com/the-trial-the-flash-two-worlds/
http://comicplug.com/the-trial-the-flash-two-worlds/#commentsTue, 17 May 2016 12:47:05 +0000http://comicplug.com/?p=3587If you’re older than fourteen years old, and you read superhero comic books today it is because of a single comic book from 1961 – even if you’ve never read it. It can be contended that the single most influential superhero comic book of all time is the Flash #123: ‘The Flash of Two Worlds.’

The Flash of Two Worlds

During the so-called ‘Golden Age of Comics’ in the 1940s, superheroes were a dime a dozen. They were featured in short simple stories written for children. They had simple moralistic plots with quick resolutions. The plots frequently made little sense, and almost never acknowledged the events of previous comics. There were of course exceptions, notably Will Eisner’s The Spirit, but most of these stories couldn’t have held the attention of an adult.

Amongst the crowds of superheroes was one called The Flash. The headliner of the anthology series, Flash Comics, was a supersonic scientist named Jay Garrick whose exposure to heavy water led him to fight crime in a polished helmet akin to that of the Roman god Mercury. Debuting in January 1940 The Flash was something of a success. He soon gained a solo comic, All-Flash Quarterly and was a founding member of the first superhero team, the Justice Society of America. But after the end of the war, the popularity of superhero comics declined. By 1948, All-Flash had been cancelled, and Flash Comics followed suit the next year. When the Justice Society’s title, All-Star Comics, was cancelled in 1951, The Flash disappeared from newsstands for half of a decade.

Introduction of the First Flash

When the Flash did return, he would have been virtually unrecognizable to the children of the 1940s. In the pages of Showcase #4 in October 1956, writer Robert Kanigher and artist Carmine Infantino introduced audiences to a new Flash, police scientist Barry Allen. Struck by lightning and bathed in chemicals, Allen was featured in far-out sci-fi adventures which drew on the tradition of fifties science-fiction movies more than on traditional superhero comics, largely thanks to writer John Broome. Broome’s Flash played with fictionalized physics, travelling through time at faster than light speeds and vibrating his molecules through solid objects. While the storytelling of the fifties was moderately more inventive and interesting than the forties had been, these stories were still squarely aimed at children.

Showcase #4 the Introduction of the Second Flash

One of the easy ‘cheats’ of writing in a medium aimed at children was that the writer didn’t have to maintain much internal continuity. If Jay Garrick said that his favorite sandwich was ham and cheese in a 1941 issue – but then said he hated ham in a 1948 issue, no one would know the difference, because the 10 year olds who had read the first story in 1940 were 18 in 1948 and had left their comic reading days long behind them.

The writers of the ‘new’ Flash in the fifties mostly ignored the Flash of the forties save for a reference in the first issue to Barry taking the name from a comic book superhero he had read about as a kid. In 1960, Barry would help found the modern counterpart to the Justice Society, the Justice League. Suddenly, DC editor Julius Schwartz was bombarded by surprising letters from a small fan community that the creators had only been marginally aware of: adult comic fans. Some of the 1940s kids who grew up on superhero comic books had never stopped reading after all. They were few in number, but this small community of outcasts, viewed as some sort of puerile regressives by their friends and families, had been paying very close attention. Now they wondered how, if Jay Garrick had been a fictional comic book character to Barry Allen, could he interact with Wonder Woman in the pages of Justice League since she had also teamed up with Jay Garrick in the 1940s Justice Society stories?

In response to an audience they barely knew existed, writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino crafted a special issue of the Flash entitled “The Flash of Two Worlds.” In the story, Barry uses his super speed to vibrate his molecules at a different frequency and finds himself on another Earth, one very much like his own but subtly different. On this world, dubbed Earth Two, Jay Garrick was the Flash.

The rather prosaic interiors on the Flash of Two Worlds

In many ways there was little special about this comic. The characters are one-dimensional. The plot is fairly standard: the two heroes unite to defeat a team of Jay’s foes who have been ruling his hometown since his retirement. Even Infantino’s art, while charming, is nothing revolutionary. Despite this, the story became an instant classic. Why? Well, there are a couple possibilities.

Flashes of the Multiverse

This was the first real attempt by a sci-fi superhero comic to explore physicist Hugh Everett’s Many World’s hypothesis for existence: that there existed an infinite number of different universes occupying the same space as our own but where events had occurred differently. In time the two Earths would spawn dozens of other fictional Earths for DC superheroes to explore. Multiple Earths became a fairly classic part of superhero lore accounting for various disparate portrayals of characters over the years, while simultaneously being infinitely confusing to new readers. Considering the divisive legacy the multiverse has among fans, it is doubtful that this alone is what made this issue so important.

The Flash of Two Worlds also introduced the thought that perhaps the events of the comic books we read actually occur. Jay and his friends had been ‘real’ people on their own Earth, while certain sensitive individuals (comic creators) had subconsciously channeled their likenesses into being fictional characters on Barry’s Earth. If Jay’s adventures were fictional on Barry’s Earth, but actually existed in another dimension, then it stood to reason that Barry’s adventures – which are fictional on the reader’s Earth, may actually occur in another universe. This possibility was first explored in The Flash #179 in May 1968 in which Barry Allen visits another Earth, our own, where he is a fictional comic book character. In a way, one could argue that this is the most direct form of realism in comics as it is the only method that actually purports to portray actual events. As many mind-bending adventures and quality stories as this has generated, it still requires the ultimate suspension of disbelief, as it forces the reader to literally believe the story.

Barry Meets Jay

No, what made The Flash of Two Worlds such an important turning point in the history of superhero comic books is that it attempted to explain a discrepancy. In past-eras, conflict between the stories of two different comics separated by years wouldn’t have been addressed. By attempting to reconcile two vastly different comics, DC set the precedent that their comics were supposed to, on some level, make sense. For the first time creators acknowledged that the events of one story could affect the events of another. In doing so they opened the door to all new types of storytelling. Rather than being one-off stories, these comics were now telling ongoing serialized stories which interacted with one another. This allowed them to write more complex stories than ever before. If readers were familiar with what had come before, they could write more daring stories with the assumption that the reader already knew the backstory.

This assumption of familiarity allowed creators to give characters more depth motivations and unique personalities. It also allowed them to tell ongoing multi-issue epics with more nuanced plots than had been possible in the single issue stories of the previous generation. Now that superhero comics began to feature interesting characters in compelling plots they began to attract an older demographic. Many of the kids who read comics in the sixties, now never stopped doing so when they got older. As comics began to lose their reputation as being ‘for kids’ adolescents and adults who had never picked up a superhero comic were drawn into the growing subculture of folks who viewed comic books not only as entertainment but as art. The creators of the 1980s, frequently attributed with making comic books palatable to adults, were all raised on the comics of the 1960s but never lost their love of them because The Flash of Two Worlds had created worlds of superheroes with their own unique histories and casts that managed to remain entertaining, even to adults.

The Two Flashes Together

So where does that leave us? Think back to the first superhero comics you read as an adult. If you had been a fan as a child these were the comics that either retained you as a fan or returned you to the fold. If you were a new reader, these introduced you to the genre. The reason these comics had the depth and necessary resonance to hold your attention as an adult is because The Flash of Two Worlds created the worlds which created the fans who made the comics that brought you into the fold of comic book fans. How’s that for a flashpoint?

]]>http://comicplug.com/comic-book-releases-for-04202016/feed/03400Marv Wolfman Is Coming Back To Cyborghttp://comicplug.com/marv-wolfman-coming-back-cyborg/
http://comicplug.com/marv-wolfman-coming-back-cyborg/#respondMon, 14 Mar 2016 12:46:34 +0000http://comicplug.com/?p=2972Marv Wolfman(The Tomb of Dracula, The Amazing Spider-Man, Daredevil) is set to return to the character he created with George Perez back in 1980 by marking his re-entry with Cyborg #10. Originally the writer was going to pick up #11 in May but has now managed to arrive earlier. Wolfman will take over for three issues after taking over from David F. Walker. As to whom will take over after Wolfman’s run it is still unknown.

Cyborg was first a member of the teen titans, a Superhero group develop by both Perez and Wolfman in the 80’s and made his debut in DC Comics Presents #26. However, the current Cyborg run features the techno-human as an adult and member of the Justice League. This version of the character has been upgraded to now have more of a connection to the digital world of today.

Newsarama managed to grab an interview with the writer about returning to his creation and how he has developed into the DC universe.

“It’s always a thrill when something you co-created (with George Pérez) continues to live on. You try to do your best and hope people like it, but we created Cyborg back in 1980 and for him to not only survive, but thrive some 36 years later, is unexpected as well as truly amazing. I love it.

I was twice lucky. I spent a lot of time working out the back stories for Cyborg, Raven and Starfire long before I even proposed the New Teen Titans book to DC. I think by spending the time up front the characters all came together and meshed well. And when George signed onto the book, he brought his own ideas on how to make Vic work.

Amazingly our ideas were in total sync and Vic became a star. That was lucky break one. After 16 years I moved on from the Titans and subsequent writers decided to populate the book with all new characters.

Lucky break two came when Geoff Johns first became the new Titans writer then moved himself, as well as Vic, to the Justice League where he found all-new ways of growing Vic and company. Geoff was the one who ushered Cyborg into the 21st Century and set the style for everyone who followed.

Geoff’s passion for the character is why Vic has not only grown older but better. George and I may have created and nurtured him but Geoff kept him strong and relevant. Along the way Vic’s had several really good parents.”

Cyborg officially became a member of the Justice League in 2011 when DC rebooted their universe.

Walker announced his departure from the comic via twitter and stated that March 23’s issue #9 will be his last as it is ‘just time to move on.’

To avoid any confusion: CYBORG #9 is my last issue on the book. It’s been fun. Thanks for all the love and support.

]]>http://comicplug.com/comic-book-releases-for-02242016/feed/02523Re-What?: The DC Problemhttp://comicplug.com/the-dc-problem/
http://comicplug.com/the-dc-problem/#respondFri, 19 Feb 2016 22:30:24 +0000http://comicplug.com/?p=2442Greetings comic fans! I need to start this off by telling you a little something about myself: I LOVE DC Comics, I grew up a DC kid. Ever since my dad took me to the comic store for the first time when I was 9 years old. The first comic I ever got was Green Lantern (Vol 3) #19. My dad chose this one because it had all the Green Lanterns in it at the time it was printed. I also got Green Lantern (Vol 3) #125, which was the most current GL book out at the time. When you’re that young- you don’t care about complete runs, or going in order, you just want to read about superheroes. Ever since then, I’ve been hooked. I’ve watched every DC animated show, I own every DC animated film, I’ve seen nearly every DC live action movie (no matter how pathetically awful some are). My pull list is mostly DC, I own thousands of DC books, countless shirts, and memorabilia. I’m basically a fanboy (without the “everything sucks but DC” attitude). Well, DC’s newest half-baked idea has me fuming. Bare with me, because this is about to get really, really ranty as I tackle this while breaking down all your preconceived notions about how “great” this will be. Enjoy.
Open up your wallets kids, because here comes the hype train! Choo, choo!

I defended DC’s New 52, and I defended their “course correction” that’s Convergence and DC You. Well that’s it, I am done with this “REBIRTH” business. I put that in all caps because that’s how DC is marketing this crap. Seriously, on their official site when they announced this, they capitalized the whole word- every, single, time. They really want you to know that “This isn’t a reboot, it’s a REBIRTH!” Who is Dan DiDio really trying to kid? This is absolutely a reboot, and anyone with half a brain can see that. I understand that “REBIRTH” is a cute little marketing ploy, and it’s going to work no matter what. Why? Because comic readers are oblivious. They’ll just say things like “It’s to keep things from going stale!” …Stale? Most DC books right now are on issue #8. You’re telling me that they’ve gotten stale ALREADY? That shows that DC has thrown away the old mantra: “quality over quantity.” They aren’t stale, DC is just desperate for cash. Sales for all the new #1’s are going to spike up to an insane number of copies, and DC will be rolling in money… At first. The hype will eventually die, and things will stabilize. Then we can all sit tight and wait for another “REBIRTH”, reboot, redo, rehash, revamp, retcon, renumbering, course correction, or whatever the hell they want to call it next. The funny part is, DiDio said that he stands behind DC You less than 6 months ago. What a load of shit that was, huh?

Am I ready for what? For this to be replaced in less than a year? Not particularly.

The thing that kills me the most about this “REBIRTH”- is the insane number of bi-weekly titles. Which sounds like a neato idea in theory, but in practice? Well, it sucks. I love how DC is pitching this like “Hey, we’re super nice guys and we love our fans! So our books are back to $2.99 again, woo!” Really? They’re $2.99? No they aren’t. If I want to read Green Lantern (which is $3.99 at the moment) it’s going to be $5.98 because it’s two books a month. So if I’m reading 5 DC stories, I now have to purchase 10 books a month! Now for someone with a decent job that’s not a problem. But what about the ones who live pay check to pay check and spend $15-20 a month on comics as a little way to treat themselves and help them get through the grind? They’re supposed to shell out double the cash to keep up with titles? This is EA Games type of scumbaggery akin to Star Wars Battlefront DLC. I read 8 total DC titles at the moment (two at the $3.99 and six at the $2.99 price points), meaning I pay roughly $25.92 before taxes. In the “REBIRTH” future I will be looking at $47.84. That’s not counting the other books I buy from Marvel, IDW, Dynamite, and so on. If I wanted to spend that much on JUST DC books, I would have more than 8 on my pull list. They aren’t doing it because they love you, they’re doing it because they want to gouge you for every dime you have. To think otherwise would mean you have ostrich syndrome.

This 2011 image is now retro. I can’t wait for all the “throwback” New 52 Superman cosplays!

“But Bryan, double the content each month, woo!” What good does that do if the quality still isn’t there? DC is notorious for outrageously short deadlines, not letting the writers know what their fellow writers are up too, and editors changing what the writers have written originally. George Perezvoiced his frustrations in the past, as have other writers such as Grant Morrison, and Rob Liefeld. If this sort of thing continues, what will a “REBIRTH” change? The answer to that riddle is: nothing. We’re still spinning our tires in the mud, the same problems will persist, because the REAL issue wasn’t solved. Not letting creators create. DC needs to stop putting writers in a box, forcing them to write in a way that sets up giant super crossover stories that aren’t needed. Let the creators create, let the writers write, and let the readers read. It’s a simple concept. Not ALL DC titles are riddled with nonsense and incoherent drivel mind you. It seems only the major titles (Superman, Batman, Justice League, and the like) have this problem. Which I will get to in a moment. But if you didn’t like New 52, or DC You- what makes you think you’ll enjoy “REBIRTH” when DC maintains the same practices they did during those? Spraying a turd with Fabreze doesn’t change anything.

Mind numbing isn’t it? Realizing that you’re living in a 30 year Groundhog Day?

I know what you’re all thinking; “But Bryan, things are going back to the way they were! We’ll have great stand alone stories again for everyone!” If I had a nickel for the amount of times I’ve heard this… 1. That’s not going to happen because of what I said above, and 2. There ARE great stand alone stories out right now, just not the ones people are expecting to get a good story from. Justice League 3001, Batman Beyond, Earth 2: Society, The Omega Men, Midnighter, Telos, Dr. Fate, and other books are all really, really good. Some of which are even fantastic. I even talked about this in a past article of mine. “Then why aren’t the sales there?” Simple, DC doesn’t market anyone that isn’t Batman or Harley Quinn, and THAT is the biggest problem of them all. It’s abundantly clear. They have to shove countless characters into a “Batman movie” because they’re scared of letting the characters stand on their own. Characters like Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, Doomsday and more don’t need Batman to prop them up. Lego Batman 2 and 3 were basically Lego JLA games, but they HAD to put Batman in the title. Why? Because DC doesn’t know how to sell anything else. Batman: Assault on Arkham should have just been called Suicide Squad, it wasn’t: “because Batman.”

This went from big deal to no deal really quick. They might as well have called it: Trivial Crisis.

“Well that’s because Batman sells! Duh!” You may be saying to yourself. Well that’s true, because DC has a self fulfilling prophecy in motion. Batman only sells because they don’t market anyone else as I said. So how can anyone else sell if they don’t try to sell them? It’s the whole “can’t get a job without experience and can’t get experience without a job” conundrum. Superman, the most endearing superhero in the history of the world made only a 100 million more than Ant-Man in the box office! Ant-Man?! Are you kidding me? Superman should make DOUBLE what Ant-Man makes. He also made LESS than Guardians of the Galaxy who no causal fan ever heard of in their entire life! What?! In no universe should this happen. Howard the Duck, Squirrel Girl and other C list Marvel characters should not outsell Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and other A listers in comic sales. But they do, because Marvel cares about ALL their IPs, not just one. It’s why Marvel destroys DC in the: box office, comic sales, toy sales, and basically everything that’s not animated movies. Which even now DC is starting to fail at (because it’s nothing but Batman titles, which people are getting sick of).

Seriously DC, just unplug your controller already.

Now DC is trying to play catch up, yet again. They’re resorting to the same thing they’ve tried twice already the past half-decade with New 52 and DC You. It’s almost as if everyone at DC HQ has Alzheimer’s, because they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. As Albert Einstein once said: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Well I for one am not insane, and I’m going to get off this sputtering clown car. I will always love DC, they were my childhood. Hell, they were even my young adulthood. But they’ve lost their way. If DC cared about putting out great stories consistently, cared about their fans, and marketed NOT-Batman… Then maybe sales would be up, and they wouldn’t force their remaining fans rearrange their pull list every 8 months due to another “REBIRTH.”

]]>http://comicplug.com/comic-book-releases-02032016-2/feed/02351Entering The Comic Book World In 2016http://comicplug.com/entering-the-comic-book-world-2016/
http://comicplug.com/entering-the-comic-book-world-2016/#respondSat, 09 Jan 2016 03:21:31 +0000http://comicplug.com/?p=2211Howdy, folks! This is something I’ve wanted to touch on for a while now, and I finally had the chance to get it all together! I constantly see people who are looking to get into the industry but don’t know where to start. Today we are going to talk about where to get started and how to make a dream into a possible reality.

For starters, I’m not a comic book publishing guru. I am not going to sit here typing away about how you can follow my 10 step process for guaranteed results. I’m just here to put all the pieces together into one helpful article with the help of some comic book writers and artists who are already published in the industry. Lets break it down!

Getting Started: Just DO IT!

I don’t want to be “that guy”, but I’m going to be. Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Just do it. (Source cited below.) For real though, everyone can talk the talk, but only a few brave people ever actually make the plunge. If you don’t commit to the cause, you’ve already given up. 2015 was a wild year where I got a chance to talk to a lot of people in the industry and they all put 110% to get to where they are now. Nobody had anything handed to them on a silver platter.

Network

Networking is one of those things they teach you about in business school that doesn’t really make sense if you’ve never applied it in real life. You meet somebody, you chit chat a bit, you exchange business cards and then promptly make your way to a trash can to toss it away. I can honestly say that is how most networking has gone in my life until I entered the world of comic books. The comic book industry is one of the most network-centric businesses I have ever seen. Almost everything I have accomplished in this industry has been due to me grinding, making contacts, spending countless nights sending out personal emails to hundreds of writers and artists in the hopes for five minutes of their time. Once I made those contacts though, everything got easier. I had a starting line that I knew I could always turn to no matter how busy people were.

This is a little different when it comes to long term projects compared to something that takes an hour or two. Finding an artist/writer who wants to do an interview is astronomically easier than finding one to create a comic book series with, but they apply the same general concepts. This moves us onto one of the real struggle points, is your work actually good?

Is your work good?

I’d hate to be a, Debbie Downer, but make sure your work is actually good before you take the leap into the comic world. Is your story interesting? Is your art clean and professional? These are things you have to ask yourself before you jump into the industry.

“You won’t get professional gigs until you show you can deliver pro quality work. Simple in concept, difficult in execution.” –Jim Zub writer of Wayward, Samurai Jack, and more.

What Else?!

To be completely honest, everyone’s success story is going to be different, especially in a business that is so strongly based on human interaction (something most jobs these days don’t include.) Let’s see what some people we talked to have to say!

We got to do a little interview with Wes Locher, writer for Alterna comics and he had some good advice!

1) For starters let everyone know a little bit about yourself.

I’m Wes Locher. Comic book writer. Letterer. Man about town. I’ve been working in the indie world for the past five years and have released several miniseries and contributed to anthologies too numerous to mention in an introductory paragraph.

I like comics that are outside the box and most importantly, fun. I’m based out of Florida, allergic to dairy and my social security number is… whoa… you almost got me there.

2) What projects are you currently working on/have planned/etc.

2015 marked the release of my sci-fi comedy miniseries Unit 44 from Alterna Comics. It’s probably the best thing I’ll ever write. I should probably just pack it in now. It’s the story of inept Area 51 employees who forget to pay the rent on the facility’s off-site story unit, leaving the secret contents to be sold at public auction. It was drawn by the talented Eduardo Jimenez, whom I feel like I share a brain with now.

Additionally, this year I released the comedy one-shot Hipsters Vs. Rednecks with artist Tyler Kelting and the time travel one-shot The Temporal with artist Kristian Rossi. Other notable works include the short comic Adrift for Titan Comics, the heist graphic novel The Undoubtables for Markosia Enterprises and the crime-fiction miniseries Chambers for Arcana Studios.

Currently I’m writing a series about Thomas Edison as a James Bond/MacGyver mashup and a fantasy series about a famous hero resurrected to fight the world’s greatest evil, except the hero isn’t into it. I guess you could say I’m prolific. My wife just says I’m weird.

3) What got you into comic books originally?

My path into becoming a comic book reader is the classic tale of the spinner rack. I grew up in small town in Ohio and whenever my parents would stop by the drug store I’d hit up the spinner racks while I waited for them to do whatever boring adult things they were there to take care of. There I experienced the adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Archie and other early 90s classics. Eventually, once I’d bought all those books my dad showed me to a dedicated comic shop a few blocks down. The rest is four-color history.

4) What would you say is the best way for someone interested in being a comic book writer/artist to get started?

For writers, understand what makes a good story. There’s a method to the madness. Read comics and books, watch movies and TV. See what speaks to you. Then write a story. Then another. Then another. Then write some good stories.

For artists, learn how to tell a sequential story. Pin-ups are great, but it’s important the artist can flow with a narrative script.

For colorists, study lighting and color theory.

For letterers, become familiar with Adobe Illustrator. Read comics and understand how the balloons and sound effects lead the eye across the page. Also be aware that everyone else will believe they can do your job better than you.

5) Any suggestions for writers/artists who are looking for someone to work with on a project?

Comics are time intensive. Anytime I start a project I resign myself to the fact that it’s going to be at least one year (if not more) until anyone is able to read the finished comic. If you can’t wait that long, you might be in the wrong business. Link up with people who are passionate and putting in the work. Comics take a long time to make and if the creators aren’t having fun with it, that will always translate to the page. Just like any other creative endeavor, fun should be priority number one.
Writers – look for artists who are doing the work and have talent. Offer to pay them when you’re starting out. Read their back catalogs. Do your homework.

Artists – look for writers who are telling stories you are interested in. Read their back catalogs. Do your homework.

6) Any other advice you may have?

Start small. Create three-page comics. Then five-page comics. Then 10. This piece of advice is redundant but there’s a reason you find it in every “how to break in” conversation. Not only are smaller comics harder to create (forcing writers to cut the fat and focus on what’s important) but they’re more financially feasible, serve as fantastic portfolio pieces and you’ll learn from your mistakes.

Sure, after finishing up your first few comics you’ll think they’re the coolest thing since the Nintendo 64, but eventually you’ll hit a point where you’ll re-read them and only see what’s wrong. That’s a good thing. That’s how you know you’re learning.
Take what you learn from each project, apply it to the next and you’ll eventually stop hating what you create. That’s when you know you’re on the right track.
Don’t worry so much about who’s going to publish your comics. Do good work and the doors will open.

7) Anything you would like to plug?
The 100-page Unit 44 collected edition is available on ComiXology from Alterna Comics for just $5.99. Recommended if you like science fiction, action, humor, breathing, blinking, laughing, etc. https://www.comixology.com/Unit-44/digital-comic/271168

8) Anything else you might want to add?

With each passing year there are more and more books being released about creating comics. Here are three that were incredibly helpful to me when starting out:

The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Denny O’Neil
Industry veteran Denny O’Neil takes readers through the very basics of story structure and how it applies to the comic book format. You’ll want to dog-ear the heck out of this thing until you find your footing.http://www.amazon.com/The-DC-Comics-Guide-Writing/dp/0823010279